CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is up 8.44 points to 31.82 and set to close near session highs. VIX has surpassed the 31.28 high set on the heels of the Japan quake and is now at its best levels since early-July 2010 on a very busy day for the options market. 19.2 million puts and 14.8 million calls have traded across the exchanges. Volatility is high, not just in the equities market, but commodities and currency markets as well. Crude oil lost $5 and the buck recorded big gans on the yen and euro. Gold traded in a wide $41 range. Meanwhile, the yield on the ten-year Treasury plummeted to under 2.5 pecent. Negativity is back to an extreme.

*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume

Bullish flow detected in Comcast (CMCSA), with 16,400 calls trading, or 2x the recent avg daily call volume in the name. Shares, which edged modestly higher on better-than-expected earnings yesterday, are down 69 cents to $22.09. Aug 22 calls are the most actives. 5,040 traded (96 percent Ask) vs. 276 in open interest. Opening buyers appear to be driving the order flow. Aug 26, Sep 22 and Sep 23 calls are seeing interest as well. Aug and Sep 22s are the most active puts. No news since the earnings release. Some investors might be buying calls and looking for a short-term rebound. CMCSA is down 12.8 percent since July 26.

*Scanning all single-stocks subject to 2500 contracts minimum call or put volume

Leap Wireless (LEAP) is falling to new 52-week lows today and is down $2.95 to $7.09 after the company reported a quarterly loss of 85 cents per share, which was 35 cents worse than expected. A noteworthy options trade in LEAP today is a buyer of 10,000 Jan13 7.5 puts at $2.25 per contract. The purchase was tied to 330K shares at $7.93. 13,145 now traded against 12 contracts of open interst. The market for the Jan13 7.5 put on LEAP, which is 5.5 percent ITM, is now $2.36 to $2.76.

Kohl’s (KSS) loses $2.61 to $49.18 on disappointing July same store sales numbers (-4.6 percent vs. +3.6 percent consensus). A noteworthy trade in the retailer this morning is a 5,000-contract block of Aug 52.5 calls sold at 40 cents per contract. It was tied to 100K shares at $49.90 and looks opening. The Aug 52.5 call on KSS is now 6.8 percent OTM with 15 days of life remaining. 7,629 traded against 2,760 in open interest.